Armageddon--full story
by wingtaichi
Summary: Armageddon is upon the Gundam characters
1. Armageddon--Prologue

Armageddon--Prologue  
By wing taichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I'm just expressing myself on Gundam Wing  
through my fics. It's not like I'm getting paid for this or anything.  
  
  
Prologue  
The velvety black cloak of night had engulfed the Sank Kingdom pierced occasionally by the bright streetlamps lining street corners. A cold mist had rolled in obscuring the stars and moon from sight, but most people were sleeping, not noticing the lack of moon and starlight.  
Like most everybody in L3, Trowa Barton was sleeping as well in his apartment. It had been years since he had been to the battle with all his friends and he was now 21 years old. He hadn't seen any of them for a little over a year now.  
None of them ever went by their Gundams anymore.   
Duo and Hilde had moved back to Earth only six months ago, but he never got the opportunity to see them. It was the same for all the others as well.  
This night may have seemed like any ordinary night in L3. But for Trowa it would mark the point where life went crazy for him as well as for all his other friends.  
Something dripped from the ceiling above his bed onto his forehead and he shifted in his sleep as it trickled down his face.   
A few seconds later the liquid dripped onto his face once again and he sleepily brushed it away only half awake.  
But the liquid continued to drip onto his face. Finally he sat up annoyed and looked up at the ceiling.   
Something was up there all right, but he could exactly tell what it was. He squinted through the darkness and his eyes widened in surprise.  
It was blood and there was a message sloppily written in the thick red liquid: Beware…Armageddon approaches…  
~*~  
Heero Yuy was one of the few who remained awake at the late hour of the night. He was typing rapidly on a computer readying himself for a mission. Tomorrow would be the day.   
The computer screen flashed with the e-mail alert icon quite suddenly. Heero sighed and opened his e-mail account then growled in frustration.  
What must have been hundreds of e-mails were new, all bearing the same message: OPEN NOW.  
"Spammers…" he muttered as he was about to delete all the messages.  
Heero paused, and decided to open one of the messages to satisfy his curiosity. The message read: Watch your back, Heero. Armageddon draws ever nearer…  
~*~  
The telephone rang loudly in Duo Maxwell's apartment.   
He stumbled out of bed and over to the telephone, still getting used to finding the portable phone under piles of papers or inside an empty pizza box left out on the counter in his own apartment.  
He ended up stubbing his toe on the counter and he cursed under his breath before he finally found the phone in one of the oddest places yet: the refrigerator.  
"Hello," he muttered. If this is another telemarketer… he thought.  
The voice on the other line drawled back: "watch yourself, Armageddon comes closer every minute…"  
Duo blinked, pulled the phone away from his ear, looked at it and laughed before replying: "sure, I'll be careful. So when is this supposed 'Armageddon' supposed to happen?"  
But whoever was on the other line had already hung up leaving him to wonder exactly what was going on…  
~*~  
Sally Po was sleeping peacefully and undisturbed. But her slumber was abruptly interrupted when something came crashing through her window. She sat up, surprised as bits of broken glass fell onto her bed and looked at what had broken the window: a brick.  
She looked out the window for any sign of who could have thrown it, but saw no one.  
That was when she noticed a note was tied to the brick.  
Quickly she untied it and read: BE CAREFUL ARMAGEDDON IS UPON US…  
  
  
Author's Notes: Better stuff is coming. Please review  



	2. Armageddon--Chapter 1

Armageddon—Chapter 1  
By wing taichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters  
  
  
Armageddon--Chapter 1  
The morning newspaper headline boldly announced: Police Investigators Baffled  
Sally took a long sip of coffee before continuing on with reading the article and nearly choked when she saw the name of one of her friends in the article: Trowa Barton  
Quickly she re-read the article:   
Police investigators received a call about 1:30 this morning reporting a disturbing message written in blood on the ceiling of Trowa Barton's apartment in L3. "The message was a possible death threat," says Officer Chou of L3 Police Force.  
No clues have been found as of yet concerning who might have left the message. Perhaps the strangest factor in this case is the result of the blood analysis.   
A sample of the blood that was used in the message was taken and upon careful analyzing it has been confirmed that the blood used in the message is Trowa's own blood.   
If you have any information on this case, please telephone Officer Chou at 315-2169.  
As she was still taking all this in a knock sounded on her door. She quickly dropped the newspaper, raced to the door and looked out the small peephole wondering who would be coming over so early in the morning.  
Sally opened the door when she saw that it was Catharine.   
As soon as the door was open Catharine pushed her way inside.  
"What happened?" Sally inquired. "You look--" she quickly stopped herself from saying the last word, though terrible would have been the perfect adjective to describe Catharine at the moment. She looked worn, her face was pale and she looked overall as though she needed to lie down and go to sleep.  
"Go ahead and say it, Sally. I know I look bad," Catharine replied.  
Sally shook her head and answered: "come on, Catharine, you should sit down. Do you want some tea?"  
Catharine shook her head and stated: "I'm not in the mood to be eating right now."  
Sally nodded understandingly and showed Catharine to the couch before taking a seat on and overstuffed recliner across from her guest.  
"So what happened?" Sally asked for the second time that morning.  
"I'm sorry about barging in like this," Catharine began "but I had to tell someone."  
"No, it's no problem. Just tell me what happened."  
"Somebody threw this paper on my bedroom door," Catharine continued, removing the note she had received only hours ago.  
Sally took it and read. It took all her strength to stop herself from crying out in alarm at what was written, but Catharine saw a fleeting glimpse of Sally's feelings in her eyes.  
"What?" she wondered.  
Sally shook her head and responded: "nothing."  
"People don't look like that for 'nothing,'" Catharine argued.  
There was a moment's hesitation before Sally sighed and questioned: "have you seen the newspapers this morning?"  
Catharine shook her head and Sally handed her the article that told of Trowa finding the message written in blood.  
As soon as she had finished reading it, Catharine's face paled and her hands shook uncontrollably.  
Sally gave herself a mental slap. I should have known better than to show her that after seeing how worked up she is over getting that message last night, she thought.  
But before anything else could happen Catharine had fainted.  
~*~  
"You will have two hours to complete your misson. Please begin," the professor J stated.  
Heero replaced the zero system and began Wing-Zero. after he had completed the first task, his mind wandered back to the e-mails he had received. I wonder if those e-mails really meant something, he thought. Why would someone want to waste their time spamming somebody with such a strange message?  
~*~  
Quatre gazed out into the sunrise, enjoying the peace of the morning from his second story balcony.  
He noticed a certain patch of clouds in an odd formation. He furrowed his brow and looked at it more carefully. It certainly looked strange.  
In fact, it looked like a funnel.  
A…Funnel…? he thought. The cloud slowly stretched until it looked as though it was touching the ground and Quatre gasped as realization hit him: a tornado.  
He'd never experienced a tornado in real life, but he knew that he had to get down to the basement of the apartment building with his people. He took another look at the funnel shaped wind cloud before racing inside and shouting: "People! We've got to get the basement quickly!"  
~*~  
Noin was watching the morning news as she ran a comb through her hair. Well, technically, you couldn't exactly call it watching. More like listening to bits and pieces here and there.  
But then the broadcast was suddenly cut off by a high-pitched constant beep and an announcer's voice stated in that disturbingly calm voice: "this is a tornado alert. Please get to the nearest basement or underground enclosure as soon as possible."  
That sure got Noin's attention. He stared at the TV wide-eyed for a moment before racing from his apartment.   
Sally's apartment was just across from his and he knocked on the door. A few seconds later Sally opened the door.  
Before she could say anything Noin urgently stated: "we've got to get to the basement. Now."  
"Just a second," Sally argued. "What's going on?"  
"Tornado."  
"How--"  
"Just go!"  
Sally paused and replied: "Catharine's here. She's unconscious."  
Noin pushed past Sally, shouted: "just go" and picked up Catharine.  
He then ran down the hall to Duo's apartment and knocked on the door.  
"Noin, what is it?" Duo muttered. "I just got back to sleep because some space case called me in the middle of the night--"  
"Save it for later, Duo," Noin muttered. "Get down to the basement. Now."  
"Hey, wait a minute. What's going on? Why are you carrying Catharine around?"  
"No time! Just get down there!"  
Duo narrowed his eyes but left his apartment.  
Noin followed him still carrying Catharine. As he reached the stairs to the basement an odd noise came to his ears.  
It sounded like a sucking noise and he realized it was the water faucets.  
But then he was closing the door and stumbling down the stairs.   
Two minutes later all hell broke loose above their heads…  
  
Authors note: Better Stuff coming, please give me at lease two reviews. 


	3. Armageddon--Chapter 2

Armageddon—Chapter 2  
By wingtaichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I don't own Gundam Wing or any of the characters  
  
  
Armageddon--Chapter 2  
Hilde shivered uncontrollably as hailstones rained down with a constant crashing noise above what had been a small house.  
The past five minutes were all a blur to her. Her new house, the house she had worked so hard to get was destroyed in three seconds flat and she felt powerless to stop it. All she could do was huddle terrified in the basement.  
The tornado had mostly passed, but it had certainly left its mark. Nearly all of her possessions were gone, destroyed by the cruel wind.  
The only items that remained were those that had been in the basement at the time, which certainly wasn't much. The whole of it consisted of a couple of old wool blankets, an exercise bike and a tin of cookies.  
She was too afraid to leave the basement and was at the moment safe from harm. The hailstones were still pinging loudly on the ground of her now nonexistent house.  
Hilde unfolded one of the wool blankets and huddled into it, welcoming the warmth before opening the tin of cookies and eating a few with trembling hands.  
I'll just stay down here until the hail stops, she thought.  
~*~  
Wufie woke with a headache throbbing in his temples. He remembered seeing the funnel cloud approaching the apartment at an alarming speed and sprinting for the lowest point he could reach: the basement. He remembered the apartment building simply…ripping apart as he ran and then he was swept into the merciless wind spiral.  
But he was apparently in the basement now, or at least what was left of it. He sat up and shifted his right leg only to have pain shoot like fire through it.  
That figures, he thought. It's broken.  
But he was otherwise quite lucky. He had been fortunate enough to land in a part of the basement that had a pocket in the rubble in piled in it, but that meant that the wreckage shielded him from view of anyone that would be walking by outside later on. But then again, he hadn't been crushed, which was a miracle.   
Unfortunately he was unable to get to his feet, which meant he was unable to leave the cavity in the ground. Plus, if he moved any of the rubble he faced the possibility of being crushed by broken beams and glass.  
Wufie listened for any sign of people outside but heard only the constant downpour of rain. He tried moving his leg again but to no avail; the pain was bad enough and he didn't want to injure it any more than it already was.  
He realized it could be a while before anybody got around to finding him and settled down to wait.  
~*~  
Relena sat in the subway worried about what was happening above.   
She had been on her way to work by subway when the tornado warning had been issued, so she didn't have to find somewhere else to go.  
All the passengers that had been on her train were now crowded onto a platform, some standing in grim silence while a few cried, worried for their loved ones.  
Nobody who had been in the subway at the time of the tornado had been harmed physically, but emotionally was definitely a different story.  
Even the people who remained silent were scared, that much was plain to see. And she knew she wore a look identical to theirs, the fear in the eyes and the lips set in a worried line.  
"Relena?"  
Relena quickly turned at the mention of her name.  
"Zechs?"   
Indeed, it had been Zechs who had spoken.  
"What a morning," Zechs feebly joked.  
Relena wryly smiled and nodded in agreement.  
"I heard about you and Heero. Congratulations," Zechs stated.  
"Thank you."  
"So when's your wedding?"  
"March 17th," Relena replied, fingering the engagement ring she wore. "Only a few more months."   
She could hardly believe she was making small talk with Zechs as perhaps hundreds were dying above them, but she inquired: "so how's your career as a perventer coming?"  
Zechs replied "It's been going great."  
"That's great!" Relena enthusiastically responded. "I hope Heero is all right," she added, though not nearly as enthusiastically.  
"He'll be fine," Zechs reassured.  
Relena nodded, but that did not mask the deep frown she wore on her face.  
~*~  
Trowa had somehow managed to get to the basement of his apartment building before the tornado had come along with about five other people. At the moment he felt much more like being alone.  
A woman who was about 25 years old was sobbing hysterically against the wall of the basement and another woman of about the same age was trying to comfort her.  
A man with dark hair in the corner was scowling at everybody that looked at him and saying absolutely nothing while another man with sandy blond hair was trying to clear wreckage away from the stairs of the basement so they could all leave.  
"You know, I could use some help over here!" the sandy-haired man shouted as he kicked a split two by four away from the stairs.  
"Will you wait for just one minute?" the woman who was not crying irritably shouted.  
The scowling man yelled: "why don't you just shut your stupid friend up so we can get the hell out of here?"  
This only made the crying woman even more hysterical and her friend angrily shrieked: "you COULD be a little more friendly, you know!"  
The two began to argue loudly, but not loudly enough to shut out the sobbing of the other woman. And the sandy-haired man jumped in on the argument as well.  
"Stop it!" Trowa bellowed.   
The fighting paused and he added: "if you would all quit arguing and work together we could be out of here!"  
The crying woman took a deep shuddering breath and nodded as she walked over to the stairs with her friend.   
Trowa walked over to the stairs as well along with the sandy-haired man. The scowling man muttered something under his breath before also walking over.  
~*~  
"Noin, come on. Wake up!" Catharine pleaded.  
She didn't know exactly what was happening, but what she did know was more than enough. Duo and Sally had told her most of what had happened, about how Noin had carried her down to the basement and how the stairs had given out as he was going down them.  
She had somehow shifted while they were falling so she would land on top of him and was unconscious. Blood oozed from a deep cut on her forehead and half of her face had been skinned.   
"We've got to get a towel or something to stop the bleeding," Sally stated.  
"How are we going to get that? There's NOTHING down here!" Duo replied.  
Duo had made no overstatement. The basement was practically empty unless you counted stony walls and cement floor as something.  
Sally gasped and jumped away from the spot she had been standing in. "The pipes are leaking!" she cried.  
Catharine and Duo looked over to where Sally had been standing and saw that water was indeed spreading across the floor.  
Catharine knelt down and started to lift Noin out of the water.  
"What are you doing? You could hurt her worse! We don't know if she's got broken bones or something!" Sally shouted.  
"I'm getting her out of this water. It might be dirty and it could give her an infection," Catharine explained. "Can somebody help me?"  
Duo helped Catharine pick up Noin before wondering: "so now what?"  
"I don't know," Sally moaned. "Who knows if it's safe out there?"  
"Well we should get Noin to a hospital," Catharine replied. "Besides, anything's better than waiting around down here!"  
The three began searching for a way out of the basement other than using the now broken stairs…  
  
Authors note: Please review 


	4. Armageddon--Chapter 3

Armageddon—Chapter 3  
By wingtaichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I'm just expressing myself on Gundam Wing  
through my fics.  
  
(A/N: I have no idea why I'm classifying this as an general. It seems more like a action/adventure to me. Maybe I'll change it.)  
  
  
  
Armageddon—Chapter 3  
Heero took a deep breath. He'd heard about the tornado hitting L3 and was worried for his friends and family. He was miles away from L3.   
Missions had been postponed and a radio had been turned on in the large building so the doctors could listen to news about the damages the disaster may have caused.  
From what he heard on the radio, the tornado had been devastating. Apartment buildings and houses had been flattened. Hundreds of people needed medical attention, but the hospital had been hit, making it impossible to care for the injured properly.  
Temporary medical centers had been set up in parking lots, the churches all being filled with homeless people. The huge number of injured people overwhelmed the few doctors that were able to help. The injured were being sent by helicopter to other hospitals across L3, but at the moment things were not looking very good at the moment.  
Heero felt his stomach twist thinking about everything that was going on. He could hear somebody crying quietly in the back of the room but was too dazed to turn and see who it was.  
He wanted to go home, but he knew that would be ridiculous. It all felt unreal and he thought maybe if he went to L3 everything would be all right, maybe it was just some cruel joke. But in his heart of hearts he knew it was real.  
~*~  
Quatre wandered through the ruined streets trying hard to keep the panic that was building inside him under control.  
He and his people had made it to the basement, but he was still afraid for his friends. The huge buildings that had occupied either side of the road were nothing. He'd come across a dying person and it made him feel sick.   
This was big. There was nothing he could do to stop it and there was nothing he could do to help the hurt people. The knowledge of that gnawed at him, pulling at him, making him all the more anxious to do something.  
There must be something I can do to help, he thought. But what he didn't know at the moment.  
This tornado really scared him. With people you could protect yourself. People could slip up. People could be tricked. But nature…Nature was a whole different story. If a natural disaster occurred there was no way it could have been prevented, little you can do to keep yourself safe. And that really scared Quatre.  
~*~  
"There's no way out of this stupid basement!" Duo exclaimed, angrily kicking the stone wall then regretting it when pain shot up his foot, but stop himself from jumping about as he was holding Noin by the shoulders.  
"Calm down, Duo," Catharine muttered. She shifted the weight of Noin's legs to her right arm and looked around the small basement. The water was now around her ankles and she knew Noin needed medical help.  
Sally smiled and stated: "I think I found our way out."  
"Where?" Duo and Catharine eagerly inquired.  
Sally pointed to a small window near the ceiling of the basement.  
"How are we going to fit through that? It's tiny!" Duo scornfully commented.  
"Well, we can either try it or stay down here!" Sally shouted.  
"Come on," Catharine muttered.  
She and Duo lifted Noin up to the glass-less window and pushed her through. She slid through the small hole easily.  
Duo went next, but had a tougher time getting through the gap because he insisted on pulling himself through. Eventually he also got through.  
"Go, Sally," Catharine urged as the blond-haired woman motioned for Catharine to go first.  
Duo reached through the window, grabbed Sally's hand and pulled her through the window. Minutes later, Catharine was also outside.  
"Come on, lets get Noin to the hospital," Catharine muttered.  
~*~  
Wufie was beginning to get just a little nervous. The wreckage that had been over him was slowly succumbing to gravity. In other words, it was begging to collapse. Already it was only one inch away from his chest. And it was getting closer by the second.  
He stiffened as the rubble began pressing on his chest before putting his hands up in an effort to keep the wood and glass off of him.  
Then he heard somebody outside.  
"Help!" he cried as the wreckage started pressing on him harder.  
"Wufie?" Quatre's voice came, sounding muffled through the rubble.  
"Yes!" Wufie shouted. "Get me out of here!"  
He heard some of the materials above him being moved and some of the pressure was reduced from his chest.  
Eventually, Quatre had cleared away enough of the broken materials to pull Wufie out and he was on the ground next to the edge of the hole that had served as a basement.  
"Thanks," he stated.  
Quatre nodded, then concernedly replied: "you're hurt."  
"I'd be dead if you hadn't come along," Wufie replied.  
"Come on, I'll help you to the hospital…or at least what's left of it."  
Wufie nodded and the two slowly set off to find a doctor for Wufie.  
~*~  
Trowa wiped the sweat from his face. It was definitely hard work clearing all the junk away from the stairs. And the perpetual silence was getting to be a bit annoying to him. But then again, he was afraid that if he said anything the woman that had been previously crying would start again and the dark haired man would bite his head off.  
Unfortunately, he didn't have to say anything for the woman to begin again. She started sobbing for the second time.  
The dark-haired man swore loudly before yelling: "will somebody shut her up already?"  
"We're all gonna die!" the woman shrieked. "And all you care about is making me be quiet! And we're all gonna DIE!"  
"Calm down, lady. Nobody's hurt down here. We're all going to be fine," Trowa sighed.  
"No we aren't!" the woman shrilled.  
"He's right," the sandy-haired man replied.  
But then something that seemed literally impossible happened. The floor began to jerk and sway.  
"Oh my God! It's an earthquake!" the other woman exclaimed.  
"We're gonna die!" the other woman screamed.   
"Will you shut your mouth, woman?" the dark-haired man cried.  
Through this whole argument the ground was shaking like some crazy roller coaster.  
Trowa fell over when a particularly strong jerk occurred.  
"Fine! I'll let you die in peace!" the woman shouted.  
The earthquake continued and the woman stopped crying, mainly because she was hiccupping. Uncleared rubble was tumbling across the room and a piece of splintered wood hit Trowa on the side of his face, causing blood to flow freely.  
Then the ground stopped shaking and all was silent for a moment.  
"Is everyone all right?" the sandy-haired man queried.  
All muttered that they were fine and Trowa wiped some of the blood off his face. He realized that blood had gotten in his eye and he quickly closed that eye to prevent any more from getting in.  
"Come on, we're getting out of here," he muttered, kicking the last of the debris away from the stairs.  
"Wait! Who knows if the stairs are safe?" the woman who had not been crying said.  
"Look, lady. I'll show you it's safe," the dark-haired man muttered. He walked to the steps and began climbing. When he reached the second step the stair broke clean off.  
"I rest my case," the woman smugly stated.  
"We're doomed," the other woman muttered.  
  
  
Authors note: Thanks for reviewing my last chapter, better stuff coming, please review. 


	5. Armageddon—Chapter 4

Armageddon—Chapter 4  
By wingtaichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I'm just expressing myself on Gundam Wing through my fics.  
  
  
  
  
Armageddon—Chapter 4  
  
Heero had still been getting used to the idea that a tornado had hit L3 when the earthquake hit. The seismic waves had been that strong that they had torn all the way across colonies.  
But now the shaking was over leaving the doctors terrified. The staffs was likewise scared, but shouted above the chaos: "everybody, we must get to the hills! A tsunami may be coming!"  
Heero began walking toward the door along with the other doctors, all too shocked to do little more than obey.  
As he walked out the door a little girl that couldn't have been any older than six inquired of him: "what's the matter?"  
Heero looked down to the girl with the large inquisitive green eyes and shock of brown hair surprised and queried: "how did you get here?"  
The little girl shrugged dismissively as they walked down the hall and replied: "I'm Ashley. Who are you?"  
Heero hesitated a moment, but told Ashley his name before asking again how she had gotten into the doctor J's lab.  
But the girl only shrugged again and did not answer. Heero tried asking why she was there, but received no answer.  
Now Heero was beginning to get a tad annoyed at how this girl was ignoring his questions.  
Why can't I get a six-year-old to answer any of my questions, he wondered.  
"Six and a HALF," the little girl loudly stated.  
"Six and a half what?" Heero replied.  
"I'm six and a half years old. Not six. That's what you said."  
"But I never--"  
Then Heero didn't see Ashley anywhere.  
~*~  
"What's going on?" Duo demanded of a man that was rapidly shouting orders into a walky-talky.   
He along with Catharine, Sally and the still unconscious Takeru had finally found one of the makeshift hospital sites. Helicopters were airlifting many of the patients away and there wasn't a doctor in sight.  
"Didn't you kids hear the tsunami warning?" the man replied. "We've got about fifteen minutes to get all these people out of here before the wave comes. Anybody still here is going to get wiped out. Get out of here! Get to higher grounds!"  
"But our friend needs help!" Catharine argued, motioning toward Noin.  
"I'll put him on the next helicopter then," the man replied. "Leave him with me."  
Sally questioned: "why can't we come, too?"  
"We've got to save as much room as possible for these people. Go! Now!"  
Catharine thought for a moment, then replied: "how do we know you'll get Noin out of here in time?"  
"Look, kid. You don't for sure. You've got to trust me. Now get out of here before it's too late."  
"I'm not leaving until I see Noin on a helicopter and the helicopter is in the air!" Catharine retorted.  
Duo added: "if Catharine doesn't leave then I don't leave."  
"Hey, I'm not going anywhere by myself!" Sally stated.  
The man looked at the three teenagers before muttering: "it's your decision, not mine."  
~*~  
Trowa was thinking hard, considering his options. The stairs were not going to be of much help and there weren't any windows in this basement. The walls seemed pretty sturdy as well. In short, it seemed they were trapped.  
"Whatcha doing?" a little girl's voice queried.  
Trowa jumped and looked up to see a small girl with bright green eyes and brown hair standing before him.  
The woman who had not been crying raced over to the child's side and exclaimed: "hello! Why were you hiding all this time?"  
"You were fighting. I don't like fighting."  
The dark haired man looked over at the woman before blandly stating: "come on, lady. Forget about the kid and get back to thinking of a way out of here."  
Trowa saw the girl's eyes flicker for a second. The look had scared him, though. It was a look of pure hate that was unfitting for such a young child. And something was strange about the air around the girl. It was shimmering in an odd way that was difficult to see unless you looked at it in a certain way.  
But then the woman was shouting: "will you just shut up already?" before turning back to the girl and inquiring: "what is your name?"  
"Ashley," the girl responded. "And I'm six and a half years old."  
Something is strange about that girl, Trowa thought to himself. Something is definitely strange about that girl.  
But for the moment he began worrying more about how all of them would be getting out of the basement…  
  
  
Authors note: More coming, please review 


	6. Armageddon—Chapter 5

Armageddon—Chapter 5  
By wingtaichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!  
  
  
  
  
  
Armageddon--Chapter 5  
Quatre and Wufie were making slow progress due to the severity of Wufie's injury. The debris in the streets made traveling all the more harder. And when the earthquake had hit Wufie had been unable to keep from falling over even with Quatre helping him to stand.  
But finally they reached a parking lot where the injured were being cared for. It was terrible there. Hundreds of people were lying on the concrete, some dying, some already dead but all injured in some way.   
Helicopters were taking the most severely injured people to hospitals elsewhere in L3, but there were many more that needed treatment as well.  
A doctor was nearby, bent over one of the unconscious people. The doctor had inserted an IV line into the person's arm. Then he straightened up.  
"Sir!" Quatre called.  
The doctor walked over to Wufie and Quatre, being especially careful to avoid stepping on any of the injured people that were on the ground.  
"Sir, can you please help my friend?" Quatre questioned.  
The doctor was an old man, but he looked like a kind man as well. He looked Wufie up and down before inquiring: "is your leg the only thing that is hurting?"  
Wufie nodded.   
"Are you sure?"  
Again Wufie nodded.  
"All right then. I'm going to make you a splint for now. Normally a break this severe would be operated on but for the time being that is impossible."  
The doctor left for a moment and returned with two straight bits of wood before feeling Wufie's leg carefully where it was broken.  
Wufie stiffened when the doctor touched his injury, but remained silent.  
"This is a very serious break," the doctor muttered. "I'm going to have you air lifted as soon as possible to get that leg operated on. But for now the best I can do is make the splint. Unfortunately your bones are not in the correct alignment. If I put the splint on your leg like that it would do little or nothing to help. So I'm going to have to get your bones aligned correctly."  
The doctor gently seized Wufie's ankle and warned: "this will probably hurt" before pulling as hard as he could.  
Wufie gasped. He could feel his bone move and it felt as though his leg was being stabbed over and over again. Then the doctor pushed gently on the place where the bone was broken, trying to get the bones lined up straight.  
This was even more painful and it took every bit of reserve Wufie had to keep from screaming. Then the doctor was putting the wood pieces up against his leg and wrapping it in gauze. And Wufie passed out, the pain overwhelming him.  
~*~  
The helicopter blades whirled faster and faster, throwing up dust and whipping the wind into Catharine, Duo and Sally's faces.  
Noin was finally being lifted to safety, away from the tsunami and to a capable hospital.  
"Now get out of here, kids. Not like it'll do any good now," the man they had argued with earlier muttered. "Look at the tide."  
The three teenagers looked over to the nearby beach and each gasped in surprise. The tide had gone out--way out. Much farther than any natural tide could ever go.  
"You've got about two minutes," the man estimated.  
"Come on, let's get out of here," Duo murmured.  
The three began to run, all three knowing the efforts would be useless…  
~*~  
Trowa was desperately trying to think of a way out of the basement. Besides the facts that the people he was with were annoying and the new girl creeped him out, he knew of something that was prone to happen after an especially strong earthquake: a tsunami.  
Of course he had more sense than to speak his suspicions aloud, as that would only bring about more arguing and more frantic bawling from the sensitive woman.  
He was thinking so hard he didn't notice Ashley ever so gently laid her hand on his shoulder. He did, however notice when the basement walls were replaced by open air.  
Trowa jumped up from sitting on the floor in surprise and shouted: "what's going on?"  
Instead of being in a basement, he was in the middle of a field. Sunlight was shining down onto the field. It was, in short, a beautiful place.  
Trowa looked around the field and demanded: "where are we, Ashley?"  
Ashley smiled, her large, emerald eyes lighting up before she answered: "it's my world." Before Trowa could inquire further Ashley was already explaining with: "it's where I go when I want to feel better. You looked sad. So I brought you here."  
Trowa was taken aback by this, but he quickly recovered and responded: "that's nice of you, but I've got to go back."  
Ashley paused a moment before tearfully stating: "you don't like it."  
"No, it's not that! I just have to go back to L3!" Trowa insisted, noticing that as Ashley's mood changed the weather changed. The sun was clouding over with dark rain clouds.  
"No, you hate it," Ashley quietly whispered. "I know you do."  
Before Trowa could say another word Ashley disappeared from view and he was left in the field alone.  
"Ashley! Come back here!" he cried as rain started pouring down in torrents.  
~*~  
Hilde had left the basement after the earthquake only to be confronted with the tsunami. But then the giant wave had just…Frozen. And every person in sight had also frozen. It was as though time had temporarily stopped.  
It was silent. Silent, except for the sound of sobbing from a small child.  
Hilde looked around, trying to find the source of the sound and found it in a small girl. It was Ashley.  
"What's the matter?" Hilde gently inquired.  
Ashley sniffled and wailed: "everybody hates me! EVERYBODY!"  
Hilde knotted her eyebrows and replied: "I don't hate you."  
"Yes you do! You just don't know it yet! But you DO! Oh, I've done bad things. Bad, bad, bad things."  
"It can't be too bad," Hilde reasoned. "What's your name?"  
"My name's Ashley. And it can be really bad. If you knew you'd hate me too."  
"Of course I wouldn't," Hilde protested. She placed her arm around the six-year old's shoulders.  
"Yes, you would…"   
And then the scene of destruction disappeared for Hilde and she was inside a house in Ashley's world. But Ashley was nowhere to be seen.  
~*~  
Heero sat on the top of a huge hill. It was the safest place to avoid the tsunami in the area. But there was something he didn't understand.  
Where did that girl go? What was here name? Ashley? Something like that…  
As he was wondering about the green-eyed six year old, he saw her walking about looking very melancholy indeed.  
"Where did you run off to?" he demanded of the girl. "I thought you stayed back at the lab."  
"Nowhere!" Ashley shrilly barked. "I was with the doctors the whole time!"  
Heero shook his head and thought: there is something weird about her.  
"There's NOTHING wrong with me!" Ashley wailed.   
And then Heero was no longer on top of the hill, but in Ashley's world, sitting atop a grassy knoll.  
The knoll was at the end of a field and it was hailing. Heero noticed somebody was running toward him that he recognized: it was Trowa.  
"Trowa!" he shouted.   
"Heero? You're here, too?"  
"Where are we?"  
Trowa explained: "Ashley sent me here. She said it was "her world" and went crazy when I told her I had to go back to L3. She made it hail. It was sunny when I first got here. Come on! There are some houses close by and I want to get out of this hail."  
Heero sat perfectly still, not moving at all.  
"Come on, Heero!" Trowa insisted.  
"Trowa, you don't think it could be possible for all those natural disasters to be caused by a person, do you?"  
"No, I don't," Trowa agreed. "Come on already!"  
"I have a feeling that Ashley is the one causing it all and we're caught in the middle somehow."  
~*~  
Meanwhile back in the real world, Zechs and Relena disappeared from the subway system underground at the same instant that Wufie and Quatre disappeared from the parking lot. Catharine, Duo and Sally also disappeared as they were fleeing the wave. Noin disappeared from her hospital bed as well.  
All were sent to Ashley's world…  
  
  
Authors note: More to come, please review. 


	7. Armageddon—Chapter 6

Armageddon—Chapter 6  
By wingtaichi  
Rated PG-13  
Disclaimer: I do not own Gundam Wing so please refrain from suing me for writing fan fiction. Thanks and enjoy!  
  
  
  
Armageddon--Chapter 6  
"Hilde? What's going on?" Sally inquired, looking around the interior of the house in surprise.  
"I don't know anymore, Sally."  
Sally, Duo, Catharine, Hilde, Relena, Zechs, Heero, Quatre and Noin had all ended up in the same house as Hilde.  
"Duo!" Hilde cried, kneeling down next to his side. As she watched, his eyes fluttered and opened.  
"Hilde? Are you all right?" he muttered.  
"Yes, thanks to you," she replied. "Are YOU all right?"  
Duo smiled and said: "of course." Hilde was relieved. At least that was taken care of for the moment.  
Relena had raced over to Heero, who had just come to.  
"Heero, what happened?" she worriedly demanded.  
"I'm all right" Heero reassured.  
While this was happening, the door opened and Trowa and Wufie barreled inside, both soaking wet from the pouring rain and hail.  
"Wufie! Trowa!" Noin shouted.   
"I'd like to know what happened to the tsunami. And where we are, for that matter," Duo stated.  
"It's that girl. Ashley. She sent us all here," Trowa answered. "I don't know how or why, but I do know that it was her."  
"Who's Ashley?" Zechs queried.  
"She's a little girl. Six years old," Noin explained.  
"Six and a half," Heero muttered, remembering the incident he had earlier had. "Anyway, as near as I can tell this world is in reality her subconsciousness."  
"So we're inside a six year old's brain?" Quatre questioned.  
"Correct. Who here actually saw Ashley?" Heero asked of the ten other people in the room.  
"I have," Hilde responded.  
"Me, too," Trowa added.  
"Then that proves one thing," Heero muttered. "She must have the ability to teleport or to move from one point to another at a very high speed. If she was with both of you in L3 and then with me halfway across L3 in a lab in the same day that is the only logical explanation." He paused a moment before continuing: "I also believe she is the cause of the natural disasters."  
Before another word was spoken a loud crash reverberated through the house that sent chills through the eleven occupants of the room.  
"What was that?" Hilde breathlessly whispered.  
"I don't know, but I sure don't want to stick around to find out," Duo replied, turning to leave through the front door--only to find that the door was now not there.  
An unearthly shriek pierced the air, making the eleven people wince. They could hear something coming closer and closer to the room they were in.  
"Everyone be quiet," Wufie whispered. "If we're lucky it'll go away."  
All eleven people in the room held their breath, afraid of what would happen if they made a sound. But then Zechs felt an urge to cough.   
He tried as hard as he could to hold it in, but the harder he tried the dryer his throat seemed to get. He held his breath, willing the cough to stay in. Then it came out in a tiny, nearly inaudible noise.  
But that was all the something needed. In an instant IT was in the room. IT was a huge black horse. Its eyes were pure yellow and its ribs were easily visible. But that part of it wasn't too scary. The fact that it had wings like a bat was the scary part.  
For a moment all eleven people were too shocked and startled to say a word. Trowa saw something behind the horse.  
"Ashley!" he shouted. "Why are you doing this?"  
The six and a half year old squeezed past the horse, eyes a dark red from crying so hard. But then she stopped and convulsed, her whole body shaking as though she had been electrocuted.   
When she stopped she ever so slowly raised her head and looked at the older people in the room with her. That look was enough to thoroughly terrify them all. Her eyes had rolled up so only the whites were shown and she was smiling the most horrible smile imaginable.  
"The one you call 'Ashley is no more," she rasped. If the look hadn't been awful enough, the voice was worse. It was low and raspy.  
"I…think she's been…possessed," Catharine whispered.  
"Correct," Ashley growled. "And it was so easy. Such a foolish young girl. And so desperate for friends. It was so easy to trick her. The promise of friendship was such a simple yet cruel trick."  
"Leave her alone! She's only six!" Wufie shouted.  
"And her mind was so weakened by her solitude. It was easy to take it over," Ashley continued, going on as though Wufie had said nothing. "She brought you here to save her. So foolish and naïve. It is no matter. I can easily kill you as well."  
"Wait! Why are you doing this? Why did you do this to a CHILD?" Noin demanded.  
"Simple. My abilities to control parts of the world are limited, especially when I have no real body. But with a body I can do whatever I want," Ashley replied. "A child is much easier to enslave than an adult."  
The horse-creature stepped forward, opening its wings and glared at the eleven people with wild eyes before rearing up on its hind legs and lashing out with its sharp hooves. It nearly caught Duo in the head, but he ducked just in time.  
Zechs plunged his hand into his pocket. He always kept a knife he had ever used in that pocket and he fingered it now, carefully.  
The horse creature advanced on Sally, Noin and Hilde, glaring at them, trapping them against the wall.  
Zechs quickly brought the knife out and held it in front of him, hand quivering slightly.  
"Go ahead. I'd like to see you try it," Ashley said. "You won't kill me. At least, not without killing the girl, too."  
The horse creature was tensing, ready to jump onto its hind legs and strike at the three it had trapped and Zechs pulled back his arm.  
"No?" he quivered.  
The horse was ready and waiting as Zechs held the scalpel in front of him.  
"Go right ahead," Ashley urged.   
Zech's hand shook and he dropped the knife before muttering: "I can't do it."  
For a brief instant, Ashley, the REAL Ashley was back and she whispered: "please. Please kill me. Please."  
And then she was gone again. The horse had turned from Catharine, Noin and Sally to Zechs.   
"Look out!" Hilde cried, darting down and retrieving the knife.  
The horse was kicking at Zech's head and at the same instant Hilde threw the knife. It whirled through the air before embedding itself into Ashley's chest.  
Ashley fell to the ground, her knees buckling. Black mist came off of her and the horse evaporated into nothing. When the last of the black mist had disappeared, Hilde whispered: "oh my God. Did I do that?"  
Ashley was losing her life quickly and she knew it. Very quietly she whispered: "do you know what I wish?"  
Everyone else shook their heads.  
"I… I wish I had friends…like…you…"   
Then her eyes drifted closed.  
"She's dead," Trowa muttered, barely able to believe it.  
Hilde shook her head and sobbed. "I don't know why I did it!" she screamed. "I… I… Oh, she was only a little girl!"  
"No, you did the right thing," Catharine reassured. "She wanted you to do it."  
"But… But…" Hilde stuttered. She felt weak-kneed. "I killed her!"  
The house slowly dissolved into nothing and they were quite suddenly back in L3. But it wasn't as they had left it at all. Buildings had been restored. The giant frozen wave was simply gone. All signs of damages were gone.  
Wufie's broken leg was healed, as was Noin's wounded face.   
"So that's it?" Duo wondered.   
"I don't know… I have a feeling we only delayed… something," Catharine murmured.  
But at the moment, all was well and back to normal for the first time in what seemed like an eternity.  
The End  
(A/N: The ending was a bit abrupt, thank you to everyone who read and reviewed this!) 


End file.
